It is quite probable that having the vinyl cutter next to me is increasing my attention to silhouettes, but then again i’ve always had a thing for them and the vinyl cutter obsession may be b/c of that? Anyhow, i was checking out Decor8, who has this cool post on German store, Raumformplan and in one of the store pics there was a coat rack cluttered with these adorable felty animal silhouettes! Turns out these felt keyrings are by Parkhaus Berlin ~ and they have quite the assortment of cozy felty goodness… particularly cute were also their bunny egg covers. And i’m loving that black car silhouette key ring!

Gift Guide Day 11 is all about kids, particularly the littler of the kids, although big ones will probably enjoy these as well. From robotic dinos and wifi bunnies to finger crayons and pirate sailboats… wood treehouse/dollhouses and clacking pull toys!

So you know i got a vinyl cutter! Well, people have been asking about when NOTCOT stickers would be available… and between all the insanity of gift guiding (nearly 10 days left!), holiday madness, and some big development/business transitions going on, i wasn’t sure if i’d have time… BUT i’ve been having SO much fun with them, i couldn’t keep them all to myself, so while everyone around me keeps getting random stickers this weekend, i’ve decided to do a limited edition NOTCOT Stickers Series 1 ~ available from now until Dec 21st (yup, i’m going to sell this series of stickers until the Gift Guide ends!). So for 20$ (and shipping) you can get a giant sheet (approx 24”x10”) of 33 stickers ~ from NOTCOT logos (even one mirror image for inside windows) to pirate brontos (outlines and full bodied) to an assortment of random scissors and safety pins as well… all hand printed, weeded, transfer papered, by ME! See below for close ups and to purchase!

I wish i knew a new grandmother to give this to… Good Granny, Bad Granny by Mary McHugh, illustrated by Patricia Storms. I couldn’t stop laughing when reading through the few sample pages (see them below!). Shade Elaine and i decided bad granny was definitely our kinda lady… taking those grandkids to Neiman Marcus to buy fingerless gloves and motorcycle boots! (Instead of knitting them mittens)… teaching them how to download rap music to their ipods… only $10 at Amazon.

Respect Your Mother by Local Celebrity… as a t-shirt, this one sky rocketed around the celeb world in green and blue, and as trendy as some things can become, i’ve always had a soft spot for this design. Loved it secretly, but part of me would never wear it here in LA, maybe while abroad though! BUT, i just spotted that they now have a canvas tote bag with it, and simply had to add it to my pick of the moment for reusable shopping bag options… or for my laptop and other random “won’t fit in purse” schlepping. Close up below, and expect this one to show up on the green gift guide to come!

Gift Guide Day 12 is illustrated and hand picked by NOTCOT contributor, Anna, of Sub-Studio! And Anna’s other half, Sean, put his incredible skills to use on the adorable frames… and the robot that is buzzing around hanging them!

D-BROS is the product arm of advertising and graphic design firm, Draft Co., Ltd. I love almost everything that comes out of D-BROS - very witty 2-D and 3-D products. The Jewelgraphy card above would be great as a stocking stuffer (or as a card). It reminds me of the costume jewelry I used to play with as a kid, only cooler. After the jump are a few of D-BROS’ 2008 calendars. I love how actual ribbons are incorporated into the design of the Ribbon calendar. The Joy by Day by Toy calendar starts as a blank slate but comes with a pack of coded stickers that allow you to decorate it on an as needed basis.

I know i said i couldn’t find anything i was desperately craving to put on wishlists this year… apparently as soon as i posted that i stumbled upon the Sagaform catalogs and have been pretty smitten with the whole Sagaform “lifestyle”… and their classically clean swedish lines and colors and approach to designing objects… so my huge collage of a wishlist is below… from watering pots, beautiful knife/cutting boards, carafes with wood to hold them closed, black mini-gym/yoga sets, a clear hotpack with a metal disc within, 30$ hiking set (was on the gift guide), genius “easy shopper” grocery bag that perfectly fits across a cart, a picnic trunk with built in TABLE, and more…

Click the images to find out more! Whether you’re shopping for what to wear, or wearables to gift… here are some of the things popping on up NotCouture to keep you or your giftee warm and accessorized.

UPDATE: Hey Kotaku people - these ARE 5 min doodles that got scanned and vectorized and printed just to see what the vinyl cutter could do… the wiimote was next to me, so just stuck them on there ~ (and our resident engineer made the tree) ~ this whole post is really just about a girl playing with her new toy.

Sorry i’ve been pretty quiet… big proposals, meetings, and i’ve been happily forced to take a little breather the last two days… and today i’m old. Quarter of a century old. It just doesn’t feel right quite yet… but i must say, its far easier to deal with when i have the best present ever in front of me…

Funny thing is, the more i write about products and review and critique, the less i had on the wishlist this year… in fact i have actually been more obsessed with what to gift others! When some of the other bloggers hit me up for the “what’s on YOUR wishlist?” i came up BLANK (sorry josh spear and design*sponge! I tried!). But Dan apparently managed to go beyond reading my mind, and found me the perfect gift ~ an industrial 24” vinyl cutter, with all the tools, a few rolls of vinyl stickering (enough to cover every wall i can find at the moment), and some transfer paper… it hooks up via usb, and illustrator just prints right to it… combine it with the magic of Live Trace and… WOW. This truly is the most fun i’ve had in a long time… we’ve been printing so many random illustrator files all night, and a few of the crazy experiments shown below (jeez this thing can print super thin lines!) - from some wiimote decorating, pirate brontos on the mac apple, and just crazy stickering… expect some more amusing projects/art installations/street art/event signage/stickers…. soon. But for now, i’m taking a little break! Gift guide update for the day coming later on after i get some shut eye!

Gift Guide Day 15 is for all those design loving Weekend Warriors who know their gear looking good on the shelf is JUST as important as how well it performs when needed to save your life, take on the great outdoors, etc… and that pic is of a magical swedish fire starter, but you already knew that.

PLEO! Just got dropped off by the FedEx girl ~ and i remember wondering when i first met Bob Christopher and Pleo for drinks at the Peninsula Hotel what the packaging/unboxing/hatching experience was going to be like. Well, here’s the answer… lots of packaging and unboxing images below, and a few shots of him waking up to the world (much whining and moaning and slow eye opening as he went into exploration stages…) I even introduced him to my Roboraptor. First impression? Strangely adorable, definitely far more emotional than my now seemingly mentally handicapped roboraptor (who is currently running into the pleo box and pushing it around while pleo begs and purrs from petting)… and it is rather bizarre having this Littlefoot (come on, don’t you remember Land Before Time… movies 1-infinity?) looking dino wandering the halls. Loving the DNA details in the box graphics… and the shot on the bottom of the box is brilliant… more to come on my adventures with pleo over the next 2 weeks probably…

Oh, and looking back compared to the prototype pics ~ he sure has gotten more color in his skin! And its so bizarrely skin/rubbery like to the touch…